Developer Puts County Ground On Ice.

[maugerstar]

This was taken from todays Express & Echo...

"DEVELOPER PUTS COUNTY GROUND SCHEME ON ICE

Plans to redevelop the County Ground have been put on hold as developers assess whether they can afford to go ahead with the proposed scheme.

Bellway Homes South West, which bought the County Ground in St Thomas for £11.4m in 2004, is now considering whether it can afford to build 100 homes there, given the current state of the housing market.

And a bid to reduce the number of affordable homes planned for the site, to help improve, its value has been rejected by Exeter City Council."

...by the time they go back with another planning application the Falcons could have had another season at the County Ground even if it was truncated at the end of August.

Surely the rent from this, albeit small offsetted against the value of the land, would have at least ensured the land being used whilst the planning applications were submitted and would provide the developers with some income - and of course this would be far better than letting the ground become derilect and a local eyesore.

[tonyl]

What a waste of three seasons. In reality it is unlikely we could have run as the rugby club had stripped out all the lights, electrics, grandstand seats, in fact everything, but now Exeter still has no speedway, no new houses and the County Ground is just a waste land.